| How can I start my Chinese learning? | |
|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2008 03:23 |   |
| guestlearnchinese | I am a foreigner who is very interested Chinese profound and brilliant culture and five thousand years history. In order to know more about Chinese culture and history, I have made up my mind to go to China for a further study. On the other hand, I am going to learn Chinese because it is very helpful for me to read original Chinese materials. Some people suggest that I should start to learn Pinyin first while others tell me that I should learn to speak and then learn Pinyin and writing. I am a little bit confused. Where should I start? Can you help me? Any suggestions will be highly appreciated. |
| Mar 4, 2008 06:49 | #1 |
| GUEST11798 | im a tour guide in shanghai who know lots of foreigners here. honstly you should have some chinese friends instead of learning pinyin. pinyin is very useful when u really start it. but friends will tell you more interesting things and easy for you to member it. then u will feel not too difficult about chinese. also come to china is the best way but its up to you. if you have any interests about coming to china, want to meet some friends, check out my website: www.lily-chinajourneys.com |
| Mar 4, 2008 23:57 | #2 |
 | If the purpose of learning Chinese is to read the classics then you will have to learn to read Hanzi. If you are going to begin your studies outside of the country then you may as well just learn to read and write Characters. Pinyin is useful if you are living here. It is designed to help foreigners read the language without really learning it. Good luck |
| Mar 5, 2008 03:32 | #3 |
| GUESTLEARNCH... | Thanks, Jabarootoo. I am not a English native. My purpose is to read the classics and learn Chinese literature. Someone told me that learning Hanzi (Chinese character) was very difficult. Is this true? |
| Mar 7, 2008 03:22 | #4 |
| Hi guest, I don't want to put you off, but if you are hoping to learn Chinese to study Chinese literature you are in for the long haul. This isn't something you are going to be able to do with one or two years study - unless you're a language genius (and/or Japanese!) Chinese characters are very complex and not only that, many of the classics of Chinese literature, let's take 西游记 (Journey to the West) as an obvious example, are written in "old" Chinese. Classical literature in any language is notoriously difficult, Shakespearean english for example bears little resemblance to the English you would learn in a classroom. It requires specialist study and knowledge to understand. If this is your path (and I think it's a fascinating path), I think you need to be prepared to dedicate very many years of your life to it. Sorry if this sounds a bit serious, but I just want to let you know what you're up against, Good Luck! |
| Mar 7, 2008 17:30 | #5 |
| I have been studying how to study Chinese for more than 2 years now. I've made little useful progress. Perhaps you will best be served by learning enough Chinese to know the radicals and parse them out of characters; and enough about writing characters that you can count the strokes. Once you can do those things you can begin using a Chinese->English dictionary. Take a look at this website to see what I mean: http://zhongwen.com/ Good luck. |
| Mar 7, 2008 19:56 | #6 |
| Agree with all above! Learning to speaking Chinese is not very hard but writing is diffucult. Guest, have you read my another post in this section? If you read it, you would find it difficult to write Chinese characters. All of us here don't want to disappoint you. If you really want to master Chinese, you need to work harder and harder. The process might be boring and difficult. |
| Mar 8, 2008 03:47 | #7 |
| GUESTLEARNCH... | Thank you very much, Jabarooto, LEMONCACTUS and Griz. I didn't realize that Chinese is so difficult. I have read some English versions of Chinese classics and have found that they are very interesting. Thus, I decide to learn Chinese to read Chinese classics. It seems that it is hard to realize my dream. BTW, can you tell me the differences between modern and old Chinese, Lemoncactus? I thought that Chinese people just spoke Chinese. |
| Mar 9, 2008 17:55 | #8 |
| Hi, My name is Vivian. I've been teaching Chinese for a while. Where are you located? Just in case that you are interested, we are a group of tutors providing private or small group learning of Chinese in Washington DC or Virginia area.... |
| Mar 12, 2008 03:29 | #9 |
| GUEST78163 | Hi, I am Chinese, we can change language, pls contact me at http://www.tt4you.com/ Global Language Exchange Online www.tt4you.com The Best!! |
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